Could you tell us a bit about your project N-VERT?
“My background is in organometallic chemistry – the part of chemistry that explores what happens when metals form bonds with other elements. Metals can profoundly change the behaviour of the atoms they bind to, creating unusual types of bonding and reactivity. In my ERC project, we focus on a particularly striking example: a triple bond between nitrogen and the heavy metal osmium. Nitrogen has a strong tendency to attract electrons, so in a chemical bond it normally becomes the negatively polarized end. In the systems we are developing, this familiar behaviour is inverted: That is what gives us access to bonding types that are very challenging or even inaccessible. Ultimately, this could open new routes to molecules that cannot be made using conventional synthetic chemistry”.
What are you hoping to achieve?
“At the broadest level, this is fundamental science. I want to understand chemical bonding, structure and reactivity better – and, ideally, discover chemistry that I would not have imagined to be possible. Just as importantly, the project will provide a vibrant environment in which we can train the next generation of curious synthetic chemists. As an example, we want to study very simple, two-atom molecules containing unusual triple bonds”.
What does the ERC Starting Grant mean for you?
“The ERC Starting Grant is transformative for me because it gives me the opportunity to build a substantially larger research group and pursue an ambitious programme over several years here in Lund. It is also an important recognition of the work my group and I have done so far, and of the scientific potential of the ideas we now want to explore. I would like to express my gratitude to the people who have helped me prepare for the final interview. I received so much support from colleagues within the Department of Chemistry, the Faculty of Science and Lund University”.
What is the most exciting thing you hope to discover?
“The most exciting possibility is that we may be able to make some very simple nitrogen-based molecules that have never been prepared before. Making these molecules would therefore be only the beginning. If we can stabilize them, we can start asking what they react with and what new molecules they can form. Because their bonding is so unusual, they could
reveal types of chemical reactivity that we do not yet know. That sense of entering unexplored chemical territory is one of the most exciting parts of the project”.
Why is this research important?
“This is primarily basic research, so we cannot predict where the discoveries will lead. But a deeper understanding of how nitrogen can be activated and incorporated into molecules could, in the longer term, contribute to more efficient ways of making nitrogen-containing chemicals with lower energy requirements”.
What will the ERC grant make possible that was not possible before?
“The ERC Starting Grant comes with generous funding that will allow me to recruit several PhD students and build a group at the Department of Chemistry, large enough to investigate numerous ideas in parallel. That changes the kind of science we can do. In a smaller project, we would have to prioritize very strictly and focus mainly on the most obvious or safest directions. With the ERC funding, we can still pursue those questions, but we can also test more intriguing ideas – the experiments that may be less likely to work, but could lead to the most exciting discoveries”.